Global Aids pandemic finally stabilises

AFTER 27 years and the loss of more than 25 million lives, the global Aids pandemic has at last stabilised, but more funds and a breakthrough in disease prevention are needed to sustain this progress and roll back the threat, UNAIDS said yesterday.

Deaths from Aids-related illnesses fell in 2007 for the second year running, thanks mainly to the widening distribution of drugs to control the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that destroys immune defences, an UNAIDS report said.

Mortality from Aids last year was around two million, some 200,000 deaths fewer than in 2005.